Notes
from Our Members

Darina
Smith takes the truth to rockers at Warped
Tour, Milwaukee.

I received one of the brochures
handed out after Food, Inc. in Ottawa,
ON. I am now vegan after much soul-reaching
and facing the facts about treatment of animals.
Thank you for handing me that brochure. I feel
better now as a vegan, both physically and mentally.
—AM, 8/26/09

At Purdue today, a student who had passed me earlier in the day
came back to let me know that she is a vegetarian
and that 5 people that she knows became vegetarian
as a result of getting a booklet from me in
the past. —Joe Espinosa, 8/26/09

I took a vacation day to
celebrate the start of fall semester and headed
over to Northern Illinois University. The students
were very receptive, probably due to Joe’s consistent
leafleting presence on their campus over the
years. In fact I did hear some discussion of
“Where’s the guy?” and some girls
doing tribute imitations of Joe’s call to “Help
stop violence.” I also heard from many
vegans and vegetarians.—Leslie Patterson, 8/25/09

As I was handing out booklets
at a dock, I watched a teenage girl climb
into her boat with a group of friends while
all her attention was on reading her leaflet.
She was reading it as the boat took off.—Lana Smithson, 8/24/09

Jennifer
Greene and Carl Santoro are joined by two
new friends at a concert on Long Island.

At the San Diego
and Los Angeles Warped Tour stops, Stewart
Solomon, Rebekah Sinclair,
Dan Holbert, Norma, and I were surprised at the receptivity
of the crowd and saw lots of people reading
the booklets. Heard from many vegetarians, many
who had received lit on campuses or at concerts,
many who just responded positively to the offer
“Info to help animals.” One fella
said, “I got one like this last summer…it
changed my life.”—Brianne Donaldson, 8/24/09

It was a good first day at
the University of Colorado, with many positive interactions. I met a
number of vegans and vegetarians. Some of them want to get active with
the CU student AR group and possibly leafleting too – yea!
My favorite interaction was with a young woman
who said getting a Compassionate Choices last
year is what made her go vegetarian; she was
very happy to get the Guide.—Barbara Bear, 8/25/09

A
University of Missouri student studies a
booklet handed to her by Rick Hershey.

Rob Gilbride, Jen Baldwin, and
I had good experiences leafleting NC State (North
Carolina’s largest school of agriculture), including
high acceptance rates. I don’t know whether
or not all the ag students saw Food, Inc.
over the summer and are now starting to
understand just how terrible industrial animal
agriculture is. But for some reason, many of
them seemed to be more relaxed around us than
in previous semesters.—Loren Hart, 8/25/09

Students were quite friendly, receptive, and polite at the University of Central
Missouri. I talked to one interested student
after she read the Even If You Like Meat, and asked if she might be interested in shifting
toward a plant-based diet. She said yes and
also said that she might leaflet with me in
the future.—Rick Hershey, 8/25/09

At City College of San Francisco, I met a number of vegetarians and vegans, including
Estafani Enciso-Marquez, who went vegan after
receiving a VO brochure at City College a year
ago! She leafleted with me before heading to
class and did great. —Brian Grupe, 8/26/09

Vegan
Outreach is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
dedicated to reducing the suffering of
farmed animals by promoting informed,
ethical eating.